Layin' Down the Law

By day, Michael Donnelly presides over lawsuits and felony trials as a judge in Cuyahoga County’s Common Pleas Court. At night, Donnelly can be found with an electric guitar hanging from his shoulders under the neon lights of local music clubs as he shreds classic rock covers with his band Faith and Whiskey.

Donnelly’s band will open for Bruce in the U.S.A. at this Saturday’s Douse the House event at Jacobs Pavilion at Nautica, which benefits the Western Reserve Fire Museum.

We spoke to The Judge (which would be a pretty awesome nickname for a rock ‘n’ roll guitarist) about Cleveland rock and Saturday’s show, which he calls “the classic rock party of the summer.”


Cleveland Magazine: What do you say to people who are surprised that you are a judge and in a rock band?

Michael Donnelly: This is the rock ‘n’ roll capital of the world, so I think every judge should be in a band.

CM: Did growing up in Cleveland influence your love for classic rock?

MD: Growing up in Cleveland with WMMS and 98.5, you couldn’t help but become a lover of classic rock. Everybody in the band grew up here in Cleveland, so that’s the music we like to play.

CM: What are your favorite Cleveland concert memories?

MD: The Rolling Stones at Municipal Stadium and the Who at the Coliseum -- just incredible experiences to see those legends on stage and be able to tell my kids now that I saw them.

CM: How is being a judge different than being a rocker?

DM: Being a judge can be very stressful. It’s a lot of responsibility when you’re making decisions that directly affect people’s lives. Being in a band, especially with a bunch of guys that couldn’t care less about what I do during the day -- we just focus on putting the best product out there and entertaining people.

CM: How excited are you to play Jacobs Pavilion at Nautica for the first time?

DM: This is going to be our biggest stage ever. It’s well beyond what we’d ever imagined we’d be able to accomplish. It’s the thrill of a lifetime. I just can’t wait to hear what a guitar sounds like in a venue that large. Plus, with the water behind you, it’s just incredible.

CM: What made you want to get involved with the Western Reserve Fire Museum?

DM: I’ve been on the board for years, and it’s going to be a great asset to Cleveland. It preserves a lot of the history for the fire department and will teach kids the benefit of fire safety, which I feel is very important, having presided over arson trials.

CM: What is your favorite song to play?

DM: “Sweet Jane” by Lou Reed. It seems to get a great crowd reaction.

CM: Your court’s philosophy has been described as providing “litigants with a fast and efficient framework for the just resolution of their cases.” Does this stem from the fast, efficient power chords that you play as a guitarist?

DM: No one’s asked me to quit my day job yet, so I think I’m probably better at this than the music. My first passion is for the law, and I would never give up this opportunity, unless maybe someone asked me to go play for the Rolling Stones. Maybe then I’d take a small hiatus.

Prices for Douse the House range from $15 for general admission to $80 for VIP tickets.

It's "Ky-ah-HO-ga" -- the Mohawk say so

Did you see Cleveland Magazine mentioned on the Plain Dealer's front page yesterday? Mike McIntyre, the Tipoff columnist, credited us with a friendly assist as he tried to settle Cleveland's eternal debate: whether the river and the county should be pronounced "Ky-ah-HO-ga" or "Ky-ah-HOG-ah."

McIntyre covers the main points: that West Siders tend to prefer "HOG-ah," while East Siders say "HO-ga." He credited Jimmy Dimora with endorsing "HOG-ah" last week. (During his "diatribe" -- Dimora's own description -- against county Republican leader Rob Frost, my notes show Dimora also reduced the name to three, almost two, syllables: "Ka'HOG-ah" County.)

McIntyre writes, "Cleveland Magazine declared hoag correct after once interviewing a woman who speaks Mohawk. Cuyahoga is derived from an American Indian word." I had tipped him off to one of my proudest discoveries of Cleveland-iana, which we published in our December 2005 "How Cleveland Are You?" quiz:
--
The most poetic legend claims Cuyahoga is a Mohawk word for “crooked river.” So we called someone who speaks Mohawk: Martha Lickers, curriculum developer at the Ronathahonni Cultural Center in Ahkwesahsne, Ont. The Mohawk word for “big river,” she says, is kahionhowanen, which is pronounced “gah-yo-ho-wah-na.” HO-ga it is.
--
Gah-yo-ho-wah = Ky-ah-ho-gah. That not only settles the HO-ga vs. HOG-ah debate, it identifies the origin of the river's name! Alas, it's not "crooked river," as the poetic legend goes, just "big river."

No wonder our discovery didn't catch on. The idea that the name means "crooked river" is one of those Cleveland myths we don't want to let go -- like the legend that the bullet holes in Great Lakes Brewing's bar were shot by Eliot Ness.

Speaking of the river: "Burn On," our complete package of stories about the 40th anniversary of the Cuyahoga River Fire, is now online. It's also in the July issue of the magazine. (If you'd like to link to it, here's a shortcut: tinyurl.com/CMriverpackage.)

Mmm....Spam quiche

Samantha and Bryan Welch huddled together in the Home and Hobby building at the Cuyahoga County Fair. The top two finishers in last year's Spam cooking contest, the Parma couple was hoping for another big win. Samantha, last year's champion with a creamy spinach spam puff, isn't allowed to compete so she's here to cheer on her husband's prospects with his Italiano Spam balls.

"We get a little more into it than we should," she says. "August means Spam around our house."

The 38 entrants to this year's contest figured out a way to stick the processed ham-like product into just about anything you could think of. Spam quiche (see above), Spam cheeseballs, sauerkraut Spam balls, golden Spam nuggets, Spam salsa, Spam kabobs, pickled Spam and the list goes on.

Spam is pretty easy to work with, but it is finicky, entrants say. For instance, don't try to grind it. It will just fall apart. Jim Lewandowski, who calls himself "Fair Guy," says he thinks about how he can adopt other recipes to include Spam throughout the year. His Spam pizza dip exists because of an appetizer his aunt brought over earlier this year.

This year's winner: Patricia Clark, who made Spam summer rolls — or, as they are known in Vietnam, Spam goi cuon.

Tell me there's a better way to spend an afternoon. The fair continues through Sunday. The spam contest may be over, but there are plenty of other things to check out. For a full list, check out the fair's Web site.

FBI raids Cuyahoga County offices

The FBI and IRS raided the offices of county commissioner Jimmy Dimora, county auditor Frank Russo and county engineer Robert Klaiber Jr. this morning as part of what an FBI spokesperson called a "long-term investigation" of "public corruption."

Federal agents conducted raids on the third and fourth floors of the county administration building, where the county commissioners, administrator, and auditor offices are located. Dimora's offices were searched, according to a county staffer. Agents also searched Russo's first floor offices. Not raided were the offices of the two other county commissioners, Peter Lawson Jones and Tim Hagan, according to their staff.

FBI agents were also searching the engineer's office on the Superior Viaduct.

Scott Wilson of the FBI, on the scene at the county building, would not say how long the investigation has been going on. However, IRS spokesperson Phil Okonek said the statute of limitations for tax evasion is 6 years.

The agents served at least 10 search warrants, also raiding businesses and residences, including Dimora's home, according to cleveland.com.

—Erick Trickey and Andy Netzel

(Caption: An FBI agent stands guard inside county auditor Frank Russo's office on the first floor of the county building this morning.)

For more about recent county government controversies, see Michael D. Roberts' July My Town, "Rage Machine," and Erick Trickey's June report on the Ameritrust Tower, "Tower Play."